F1 - Pirelli Grosser Preis der Steiermark: Event Analysis
Free Practice:
FP1 saw 2 driver changes, with Pole Robert Kubica subbing for Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo, and Anglo-Korean Jack Aitken making his F1 race weekend debut with Williams in place of former ART teammate George Russell.
Aitken had a relatively successful outing, finishing 2 places ahead of full-time Williams F1 driver Nicholas Latifi. The same couldn’t be said for Latifi however, who suffered a gearbox issue that caused him to stop out on track at Turn 5, causing a red flag.
McLaren’s Landor Norris made a rookie error by overtaking under the yellow flags for Latifi’s car, and as a result was handed a 3
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen also suffered problems, with a suspected battery issue stopping the Dane from setting a laptime. AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat span at Turn 3, but didn’t hit anything.
Everyone else had relatively smooth sailing, with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez impressing to top FP1, with both Racing Points in the top 5.
FP2 saw Max Verstappen reclaim top spot for Red Bull, but it was former Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo who suffered a heavy crash just 13mins into the session. He lost the rear of his Renault going though the fastest corner on the circuit, Turn 9, and hit the tyre barrier heavily at the rear of the car, likely causing gearbox damage. Ricciardo was seen limping away from his car, but was declared fit to race by the medical centre, despite still limping in the paddock afterwards.
Ricciardo crashes heavily in FP2
FP2 also had the unusual importance of possibly setting the grid for Sunday’s race, with Saturday set to be a wash out with thunderstorms in the area.
This does not bode well for Hamilton, who was very unhappy with his Mercedes W11. The team completely changed his setup and checked the wheel alignments, and will complete a full investigation this evening. Hamilton’s complains seemed to be well-founded, as he finished down in 6th.
Racing Point continued to impress, with Perez 3rd ahead of teammate Lance Stroll. Ferrari however continued to struggle, with Vettel all the way down in P16 in FP2. McLaren’s Norris received a clumsy 3-place grid penalty for the race, after overtaking under yellow flags.
Saturday looked to be a washout, with heavy rain and thunderstorms swallowing the circuit, so much so that FP3 was cancelled, and there was talks of running qualifying on Sunday morning or even using the FP2 results to determine the grid.
Qualifying:
However, after a delay, Q1 got underway at the Red Bull Ring is treacherous conditions. McLaren looked very competitive, with both Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz almost always within the top 5. George Russell also had a breakthrough session, securing his first Q2 appearance of his F1 career, and Williams’ first Q2 appearance in over a year.
Racing Point seemed to lack the frontrunning pace they showed on Friday, with Sergio Perez in particular struggling and failing to get out of Q1, however his final lap was ruined by a red flag after Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi crashed out of the penultimate corner.
Q2 saw the ‘least wet’ qualifying session out of the 3, with times reaching the high 1:17s. Russell impressed to qualify in an incredible P12 for Williams, and less than a tenth of a second out of Q3. Stroll disappointed despite his past form in the wet and finished down in 13th, but the biggest shock was, like last weekend, a Ferrari went out of qualifying in P11.
This time however, it wasn’t Sebastian Vettel but his teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished an amazing 2nd last Sunday. Ferrari’s pace, despite fast-tracking their Hungary updates for Styria, appears to still lack pace in the dry and the wet, with Vettel only just ahead of his teammate in Q2.
A drenched Red Bull Ring pitlane
For Q3, the rain intensified further, with times over 2 seconds slower than in Q2. Throughout the session, it seemed to be a battle between Mercedes and Red Bull for pole, however it was the rainmasters Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen taking the front row, with Hamilton on pole by a ridiculous 1.216s – a lifetime in motorsport.
Verstappen’s final lap was ruined right at the end after a slow car distracted him out of the penultimate corner, causing the Dutchman to spin.
Like last week, a McLaren will line up in P3, however unlike last week it is Carlos Sainz Jr and he qualified there on merit. Renault’s Esteban Ocon also shone in P5, while Red Bull’s Alex Albon finished P7, a massive 0.539s off teammate Verstappen, while Bottas was a whopping 1.428s behind Hamilton.
The full Qualifying results can be seen below:
* Norris and Leclerc handed 3-place grid penalties - Norris starts P9, Leclerc starts P14
** Grosjean did not set a lap in qualifying, but is given permission to start the race
The Race:
There was drama right from the start – Sainz challenged Verstappen into Turn 1, and again into Turns 3 and 4, but eventually had to back off. However at the back was were the real action was, as for the second time in 4 races, the Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided. This time, the fault was on Leclerc, as he got launched by the apex kerb at Turn 3 and launched on top of Vettel’s rear wing, destroying the rear structure of the car. The Safety Car was deployed, Vettel made it back to the pits to retire, as did Leclerc after the restart with floor damage. The crash caps off a dreadful opening 2 races for Ferrari.
Vettel and Leclerc crash - photo by F1TV
George Russell was set to try to score points after starting in P11 after Leclerc’s grid penalty, however any points chances were ruined after making a mistake on the restart and going off at Turn 6, narrowly avoiding the barriers.
For most of the race, the action was happening in the midfield, with the Renaults of Ricciardo and Ocon battling it out, with Ricciardo proving faster despite being on the harder Medium Tyre.
The Racing Points were proving to be mighty fast, with Perez up into the top 10 despite having started in P17 come the middle of the race. On Lap 39, he and Sainz were battling over P8. The McLaren driver overtook the Racing Point with ease into Turn 4, however Perez managed to work the switchback to place him on the outside for Turn 6, and pulled off an incredible overtake around the outside of Sainz.
Esteban Ocon lost what would’ve been a very good points haul for him and Renault having started in P5 when he pulled into the pits suddenly to retire. The team said after that it was a radiator weld failure that caused overheating, and was identical to the failure that caused Ricciardo to retire at the previous race. He joined the Ferraris as the only retirements from the Styrian Grand Prix.
Bottas had stayed out much longer on the first stint in order to have fresher tyres at the end of the race to challenge Verstappen for P2, and this is exactly what happened. Come Lap 66, Bottas made the overtake into Turn 4 on the Red Bull driver, however Verstappen being the racer her is, managed to hang it round the outside of Turn 4 despite the older tyres, and repassed the Mercedes driver into Turn 6.
A lap later, Bottas was sizing up Verstappen once again into Turn 3, to pull off the same move into Turn 4. This time he was successful in doing so, despite Verstappen nearly diving one up the inside of Turn 4.
The battle for 4th came alive at the same time, with Perez continuing his charge from 17th. However out of Turn 4 he collided with Alex Albon, breaking his front wing and causing a significant loss of downforce.
Perez with his damaged front wing
Onto the final 2 laps the action really kicked off in the midfield – Stroll divebombed Ricciardo into Turn 3 in their battle for P6. At this point they are 12 seconds behind the limping Perez. Norris capitalised on Stroll’s botched divebomb, passing Ricciardo on the straight before sending it round the outside of Stroll into Turn 4.
Then onto the final lap Norris passed Stroll in an aggressive move into Turn 4, before managing to catch Perez in the final corners of the race, passing him into the final corner for P5 – another stellar final lap from Norris at the Red Bull Ring like last weekend.
But the action was still not over as Stroll had to check up behind Perez through the final corner, resulting in him, Perez and Ricciardo having a 3-wide photo finish, with Perez coming out on top.
The full race results can be seen below:
The result means that after the opening 2 races of the season, Valtteri Bottas leads the championship by 6 points over teammate Lewis Hamilton, thanks to his P1 and P2 from the Red Bull Ring double header. Meanwhile, Lando Norris is shining in P3 and Perez in P5, with McLaren and Racing Point doing so likewise in P2 and P4 respectively in the Constructors' Championship, while Ferrari flounder in P5 thanks to Leclerc's surprise podium at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The full Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings can be seen below:
Formula 1 returns next week for the 2020 Aramco Magyar Nagydíj, at the Hungaroring.
